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General motors corp. didn't leave a media card unplayed last year in unseating perennial leader Procter & Gamble Co. as the nation's top advertiser, according to Advertising Age's 43rd annual report on the 100 Leading National Advertisers.

GM's U.S. advertising hit $3.09 billion, up 29.9%, to P&G's $2.74 billion, up 6.3%, as the automaker became the first advertiser to crack $3 billion in annual ad spending.

GM's strength was media spending, accounting for nearly 73% of its total. It was the nation's top spender in magazines and network TV, and placed in the top 10 in seven other media. GM had nine new-vehicle introductions that drew first-time media dollars of nearly $400 million.

Not since 1962 has General Motors occupied the driver's seat on the Ad Age ranking. P&G virtually owned the spot in succeeding years, only giving way to Philip Morris Cos. in 1986-89.

When P&G bettered GM in '63, it did so by spending $200 million to GM's $160 million. Now, there are 11 companies with total advertising exceeding $1 billion. Entry to this year's list was $199.7 million.

A healthy economy, government fiat and new technologies stimulated ad growth an aggregate 8.6%, to $58 billion, for the top 100 in 1997. Some $33.4 billion of that was in media, up 9.9%. Unmeasured hit $24.6 billion, up 6.8%.

Also charted in this report are the second 100, a group that amassed $13.2 billion in advertising, $7.94 billion (up 10%) of that in media (see Page S-8).

MEDIA SURGE IN '98

Media continue to press forward: By midyear '98, media outlays for all advertisers hit $38.1 billion, up 9.7% over first-half '97. Dollars in '98 are shifting into network and spot TV, up 10.5% and 9.3%, respectively, as most other media are showing smaller increases than a year ago. These 200 are the reason for TV's ascendancy; annually, they claim nearly 70% of all spending in network and spot, which together account for a quarter of media expenditures by all advertisers.

The 11 pharmaceutical companies in the top 100 pushed huge ad sums into TV when the Food & Drug Administration last August eased restrictions on advertising their Rx brands on TV.

This so-called direct-to-consumer Rx spending has risen 33% to about $480 million in the first five months of this year, according to CMR, with TV's share quadrupling the amount spent on the medium in the corresponding period (see story, Page S-25).

The wireless units of Sprint Corp. and several Baby Bells are benefiting from the government's setting aside a frequency band for Personal Communications Service. This, along with growth in the more traditional cellular market, has encouraged a host of new phone makers and service providers. Media couldn't be more delighted, receiving $578 million in advertising, up 58%, from the top cellular phone services and cell phone makers (see

story, Page S-19) in '97.

TECHNO-EFFICACY

Cellular expansion has produced a noisy marketplace that has complicated the consumer's selection process; far less complicated is the toothpaste market.

No. 63 Colgate-Palmolive's new Colgate Total proved so adept at fighting gingivitis among other clinical claims that it drew an endorsement from the American Dental Association, wrested market lead by midyear '98 from P&G's Crest and gave currency to efficacy benefits in a category that had come to be dominated by claims of whiteness and taste (see story, Page S-18).

P&G is defending its Crest franchise by raising first-quarter '98 ad spending to match Colgate's heightened media totals, up 101.7% in that period.

Strength of luxury vehicle sales is directly related to the economy, and in the case of luxe sport-utility vehicles the economy has put more money into the hands of image-conscious baby boomers -- the primary buyers of these luxury light trucks. Form (image) rather than function is what's behind the market boom in SUVs, which passed luxe autos in unit sales, 53.4% to 48.8% of market, this past year (see story, Page S-12).

As investors have recently discovered, the economy isn't win-win for all. Exposure in Asia has contributed to earnings declines for No. 43 Nike, compensating this year by paring $100 million from its ad budget, mostly in the U.S.

Asia still hovers over the world markets like an overly cautious bridge player protecting a high trump.

Copyright 1998 by Crain Communications Inc. Quotation or reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly forbidden.